Last weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to sing in a choir with direction by Craig Jessop. It is always fun to dust off my old choral folder and learn new and challenging music and an awesome director makes that so much easier. Growing up in the Latter-day Saints community I knew that Craig Jessop and I shared a few things in common, we both love music and we both are LDS. The choir consisted of about 86 members, only 9 of us were LDS and the others were of different faiths in the community. It is always refreshing to me to have positive interfaith events with other churches. What I found so surprising through this event though is the level that the majority of the members of the choir (who are not of the same religion as Craig Jessop) held Craig at - they worshiped him!
Not exaggerating.
Many have followed him around the world, toured with him, traveled to other states for master classes; I was shocked at the dedication they had for him. I have had many opportunities to sing with well known directors, and have been in numerous choirs and ensembles but I have yet to think of a time that there was such love and such devotion for a director.
As I was telling all of this to a friend and I may have used the word "weird", she put it into a different perspective. We, as members of the Latter-day Saints have had many opportunities to see Craig direct, hear his music and we know who he is as he was the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for so many years. We know the spirit that can come from the right kind of music and from the right direction. Perhaps what the other members of the choir are so attracted to about Craig is the spirit that he brings out in the music; they might not be able to recognize what exactly it is but they know that Craig embodies something very powerful that they want to be apart of.
As I reflected over what she said and from what I witnessed from the choir members and just the whole experience it was evident what a strong testament of the gospel I had just participated in. Without using any specific words, Craig Jessop was able to extend his testimony and have it penetrate the hearts of all of these people in the choir and in the audience. Without any words, the spirit spoke to all of these people; that is why I love music and why I now love Craig Jessop.
If in fact you are looking for me in the above picture, you will not find me. This was right before the concert was to start and I was in need of a restroom break and apparently someone decided to take pictures at that moment. Epic fail for me!
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